The days are long, the nights are longer, and the temperature can sometimes slip below minus-30 degrees. Thirty miles above the Artic Circle the “fields are plentiful but the workers are few.” “…where there are men, there is a need to know God. Theirs is the certainty that he can be known in Jesus Christ, his son, who died on a cross for the sins of men, who lived as a man among men, and who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.” Heb.4:15 KOTZEBUE, Alaska – The days are long, the nights are longer, and the temperature can sometimes slip below minus-30 degrees. Thirty miles above the Artic Circle the “fields are plentiful but the workers are few.” “When you combine the cold, the darkness, the harshness of village life, alcohol, drugs, and suicides, it is evident native Alaskans have a great need to hear the gospel so they can come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Marvin Savoie said. “And there is a great need for missionary volunteers to help the pastors there to present the gospel to the population.” Owner of Savoie Faire Painting and a member of First Baptist Church in Lafayette, Savoie is no stranger to Alaska. He has been making mission trips there twice a year for the last … [Read more...]

BATON ROUGE – A World Changers group recently visited Baton Rouge to repair and paint a house in Scotlandville. During their visit, members of various Sunday school classes of First Baptist Baton Rouge delivered lunches to the work site each day.  The Break Room of First Baptist was the mission project for the recently-held Vacation Bible School. Attendees packaged 144 lunch bags – enough lunches for two weeks. The Break Room and Clothes Closet continually provide needed items to the community. Burn Page, pastor. n Youth of Broadmoor Baptist Baton Rouge are participating in a mission trip to Maryland. Jarrett Banks, pastor.  n On Mission Kentwood is set for 8 a.m. Saturday, June 28 and is sponsored by First Baptist Kentwood. Joey Miller, pastor.  n Proceeds from the Beyond the Gold Olympic Outreach fundraiser held at Woodlawn Baptist Baton Rouge recently will be used to help team members pay their share of expenses associated with the trip, which launches at the end of July and finishes the first week of September.  Prayer is requested for the team in the areas of finances, physical and spiritual health. Tommy Middleton. pastor. n Youth of McClendon Baptist West Monroe are participating in a World Changers event … [Read more...]

Kilbourne First Baptist KILBOURNE FIRST BAPTIST Bayou Macon Baptist Association KILBOURNE – B.C. Haley of Kilbourne has always had a soft spot in his heart for pastors. “They rarely have anything they can call their own,” said the 74-year-old Haley. “So, I try to do whatever I can to make sure they are taken care. When Bro. Ron Bray came here, he was an inspiration and a joy to be around. “I like his cowboy-style of preaching,” Haley said. “He preaches the word the way it should be preached and pulls no punches. On top of all that, he has a wonderful voice – he sings like a mockingbird.” Therefore, when a chance to do something special for Bray and his wife Gail presented itself more than a year and a half ago, Haley, a retired farmer and head of the deacons at First Baptist Church in Kilbourne leaped at the opportunity. When Bray’s mother gave her son 17 beautiful acres between Heber Springs and Rose Bud, Ark., Gail wanted a house built on the land. She wanted the couple to finally have something they could call their own. “We’ve never had a house of our own,” said Gail Bray. “We have lived in the various parsonages of the church where Ron has pastored. So, when we got this land, I wanted a house … [Read more...]

Cowboy Church isn’t so different from your average church. CROSS BRANDED COWBOY CHURCH North Rapides Baptist Association RUBY  – Cowboy Church isn’t so different from your average church. Or is it? The pulpit is anything from a flatbed trailer in the middle of a rodeo arena to some bales of hay. Believers are baptized in a watering trough. And the sanctuary is a working barn or shed. During the service, you forget the horses and cows there. Their occasional stomps, snorts and mooing seem to go hand in hand with the music or the preaching. Hardly a soul there notices it. People attend church there, in par, because they feel comfortable and accepted, no matter their background or what they are wearing. Such is the case of Cross Branded Cowboy Church, a ministry of Pine Grove Baptist Church. “We started this ministry [Cowboy Church] to be a mission church a little over a year ago,” Pastor Dewayne Rogers, pastor of Pine Grove Baptist, said. “Richard Swain one of my deacons was the first to come share with me the burden of reaching his many cowboy friends. “He was concerned, because many of them would never darken the doors of a traditional church,” Rogers said. “They were uncomfortable, He … [Read more...]

COMINGS AND GOINGS n Michael E. Travers, PH.D. (wife Barbara) new as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Louisiana College. n Ken Goodman resigns as student minister of Eastwood Baptist, Haughton going to Second Baptist, Springfield, Mo. ANNIVERSARIES AND CELEBRATIONS n Macy and Melvin Matthews of Highland Baptist, New Iberia, celebrate 70th wedding anniversary Sunday, June 29. n First Baptist Jackson celebrates Homecoming 11 a.m. Sunday, June 29; dinner on the grounds. Joe Nesom, pastor. REVIVALS n HEFLIN – Jack Daniels Ministries: First Friday Camp Meeting fellowship 6 p.m. Friday, July 4; singing and preaching 7 p.m. Friday, July 4. Craig Franklin, speaker. n ATHENS – New Hope Baptist: 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday, July 13; 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, July 14 – 16. Joe Aulds, evangelist; Eddie Balance, pastor. CHURCH AND ASSOCIATION EVENTS n BATON ROUGE – First Baptist: Sanctuary Choir and Orchestra present “One Nation Under God” 6 p.m. Friday, July 4. Burn Page, pastor. n KENTWOOD – First Baptist: July Marvelous Mondays 7 p.m. Monday, July 7. Keith Rhodes, speaker; Chris Wales, worship leader; Joey Miller, pastor. n WEST MONROE – McClendon Baptist: July 4 celebration of freedom service … [Read more...]

Biblical standards for church membership, accountability for living like disciples of Jesus and trying to restore members who have dropped out of church life were the focus of a resolution adopted June 11 by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in the Indiana Convention Center. INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – Biblical standards for church membership, accountability for living like disciples of Jesus and trying to restore members who have dropped out of church life were the focus of a resolution adopted June 11 by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in the Indiana Convention Center. As presented by the 10-member resolutions committee, “On Regenerate Church Membership and Church Member Restoration” urged Southern Baptist churches to “maintain a regenerate membership by acknowledging the necessity of spiritual regeneration and Christ’s lordship for all members, ... maintain accurate membership rolls for the purpose of fostering ministry and accountability among all members of the congregation and ... implement a plan to minister to, counsel, and restore wayward church members based upon the commands and principles given in Scripture.” Church membership had been a topic of discussion in … [Read more...]

Alma Hunt, a passionate and influential leader who served as the executive secretary of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) for 26 years, died Saturday, June 14. She was 98. BIRMINGHAM, Ala.– Alma Hunt, a passionate and influential leader who served as the executive secretary of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) for 26 years, died Saturday, June 14. She was 98. Although Hunt lived a full life dedicated to Christian service, the WMU family and extended Christian community will always remember her as the face of WMU as she led the national missions organization from October 1948 until October 1974. In her autobiography, Hunt mused, “Work never allowed me time to take trips for pleasure only, yet it afforded me great pleasure. It never allowed me to take much time with my friends, but it kept me in touch with friends all the time. It never allowed me to have hobbies, but it became my hobby. In reflection, the years as WMU executive secretary seem one continuous string of adventures.” Under her leadership, WMU membership was first reported at more than 1.5 million as Hunt propelled WMU into the future. Several other events also marked Hunt’s tenure: the first National Acteens Convention was held at Glorieta, N.M.; the first … [Read more...]

Despite media speculation to the contrary, three new polls show that evangelicals, including Southern Baptist pastors, support Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama by wide margins.  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Despite media speculation to the contrary, three new polls show that evangelicals, including Southern Baptist pastors, support Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama by wide margins. The polls were released as Obama courts Christian leaders and voters in hopes of cutting into what has traditionally been a Republican stronghold. During the Democratic primary, Obama’s campaign released a flyer in conservative Kentucky showing him at a pulpit, with a cross in the background, quoting him as saying, “I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.” The flyer called Obama a “committed Christian.” But, so far, Obama’s outreach hasn’t put a significant dent in McCain’s support among evangelicals. For instance: n 80 percent of Southern Baptist pastors plan to vote for McCain and only one percent for Obama, according to a poll of 778 pastors conducted by LifeWay Research in April and May. Fifteen percent were undecided. n 78 percent of likely evangelical voters say they’ll … [Read more...]

Barbara Wagner discovered recently her state would not cover chemotherapy for her lung cancer but would underwrite her death by physician-assisted suicide.  EUGENE, Ore. (BP) – Barbara Wagner discovered recently her state would not cover chemotherapy for her lung cancer but would underwrite her death by physician-assisted suicide. Wagner, 64, received notice in May that the Oregon Health Plan, which provides health-care coverage for about 380,000 low-income residents monthly, had refused to cover the drug prescribed by her oncologist when her cancer recurred, according to The Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard. She was told, however, it would cover assisted suicide as part of palliative, or pain relief, care. The notification the health plan would cover assisted suicide especially disturbed Wagner. “To say to someone, we’ll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it’s cruel,” she told The Register-Guard. “I get angry. Who do they think they are?” Bioethics specialist Wesley Smith said this should come as no shock in Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1997. “We have been warning for years that this was a possibility in Oregon,” Smith wrote on the weblog Bioethics.com. “Medicaid is rationed, … [Read more...]

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary ethics professor Daniel Heimbach has withdrawn his membership from the Society of Christian Ethics after the group took a stand in what he calls “honoring sin over Scripture” regarding homosexuality. WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP) – Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary ethics professor Daniel Heimbach has withdrawn his membership from the Society of Christian Ethics after the group took a stand in what he calls “honoring sin over Scripture” regarding homosexuality. Heimbach said new guidelines soon to be adopted by the society will make it impossible for any member to remain in good standing who does not affirm homosexuality. After 24 years of membership in the Society of Christian Ethics, Heimbach said the group has now gone so far in its view and defense of homosexuality as to disqualify members who defend and apply biblical morality. The membership of the group now totals more than 1,000 people from the United States, Canada and Europe. According to its website, the group aims to “promote scholarly work in Christian ethics and in the relation of Christian ethics to other traditions of ethics … and to provide a community of discourse and debate for those engaged professionally … [Read more...]